1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to key attachments for musical instruments and more particularly to attachments for thumb rest and adjacent octave key of a saxophone.
2. General Background
Several wind musical instruments have thumb rests which help the musician hold the instrument and further help position the hands in the correct position for playing the instrument. The left hand thumb rest of a saxophone is located slightly above the mid point of the instrument and is simply a post having a round, flat head portion for placing the left thumb. The musician's left thumb performs an additional function by depressing an adjacent octave key lever from time to time. This function requires the thumb to be rotated over the edge of the thumb rest in order to depress the octave key lever since the lever and the thumb rest are generally the same height to allow a smooth transition. Repeated depression of the octave key may cause soreness after long periods of play.
Since the saxophone thumb rest is round and the instrument is sometimes played without a strap, especially the soprano saxophone, the musician's hand tends to become horizontal relative to the instrument and therefore departing from the proper position whereby the thumb is perpendicular to the octave lever. Although this improper positioning of the thumb does not necessarily affect the operation of the octave lever, it does affect the positioning of the fingers of the left hand relative to the instrument keys. Therefore, with improper finger positions, the fingering of keys becomes sloppy and awkward to manage. It is essential that the left hand, when holding the instrument, remain in a natural wrist position which places the thumb at approximately a 30 degree angle off the vertical, thereby properly positioning the fingers and placing the thumb perpendicular to the octave key. This problem, although subtle, is overcome by accomplished players but is a significant problem for beginners who tend to form bad habits without knowing why.
There is a need to correct the above problem to insure proper thump placement on the thumb rest and further to improve transition from the rest to octave key in such a way as to allow the thumb to remain in the proper position and not be required to arch over the edge of the rest.